If you think the old boys of soccer are lacking power in their boots, Joe Ferrante's nose will tell you a different tale.
His honker took the full force of a Kal Basi hot shot from close range late in the game. Other than a faint "W" impression on the face of the veteran goalie, the Wilson ball left no visible damage. But Ferrante was probably wishing his career as a striker hadn't been cut short by that Achilles tendon tear a couple years ago.
Ever since the Northern Sport Centre opened in 2007, the grandmasters of the B.C. Indoor Soccer League have been meeting for Sunday morning choir practice on the climate-controlled field turf for two-hour games of pick-up soccer. Or in Walter Hanik's case -- pick-me-up soccer.
Now in his seventh decade of kicking around a ball, the 72-year-old Hanik, the grandmasters league organizer, never fails to get a charge out of trying to find new ways to make a goalie look bad.
"It's brutal, all this end-to-end action, it's hard to keep up," smiled Hanik.
No less than 16 nationalities are represented in the grandmasters group, which because of limited field availability, had to limit its membership to 26 players. They come from Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Malta, Romania, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Portugal, Italy, Iran, India, and the Ukraine and will think nothing of poking fun of their respective nationalities and accents on the soccer field.
Harold Hacker, 69, says he started playing organized soccer 60 years ago in his native Germany.
That prompted English-born Nicholas Buck to pipe up: "Soccer's not organized in Germany."
Hacker came to Prince George in 1960 and has played soccer ever since.
"It's fun trying to keep up, every Sunday getting your heartbeat up and trying to score a few goals, it's all good," said Hacker. "There's a lot of 50-year-olds and I'm giving 20 years away. I used to play in the masters league (of the outdoor North Cariboo Senior Soccer League) until I was 66.
"Once you quit, you're done, so you have to keep going."
Officially, it's an over-50 crowd, but there is one player, 44-year-old Gil Botelho, who brings down the age average.
"He's been with us ever since we started in the Roll-A-Dome, when he couldn't take the ball properly, and we let him play with us, and look at him now," said Hanik. "We have a bunch of old guys and we have two lines for two hours, so they get a good hour of playing in and if we're short the get way more than an hour. Many of us have been together 10 years or more."
Kamran Mehrassa, originally from Iran, has been involved with the league since he came to Prince George two years ago.
"We're a bunch of old guys and we play as best we can with what we've got," the 53-year-old Mehrassa said. "It's a nice blend. People know what they're doing because they've played a long time. Maybe their legs won't take them as far but they still have the skills."
The one Romanian on the grandmasters list, Hugo Riske, has leukemia and hasn't been able to play for about a year, but the group says there will always be a place on the field for him.
"We miss him badly," said Hans Ruch, 64.
The Swiss-born-and-raised Ruch doesn't like jogging and says there's no substitute for soccer.
"I'm in pain after each practice because my knee is screwed up but we should consider ourselves lucky that we're still able to play," said Ruch. "When I go back to Switzerland most of the guys my age have quit soccer. It surprises them we're still playing. If they would see how well we play soccer here they would be shocked."
"Where I come from in England there's very little masters soccer, people where I'm from don't keep fit," said Buck. "They'd rather watch the match on TV in pub. They're not as fitness-conscious as Canadians are, and we have a great facility here too, that's really easy on the body."
There are no set teams for the Sunday sessions and that helps everybody get to know each other better. The grandmasters travel to oldtimers tournaments in Palm Springs or the Okanagan or get together for outdoor games in the B.C. Seniors Games.
By the end of the two-hour game, the old boys are ready to chow down for breakfast. Whether that be bacon and eggs or beer and pretzels, they've earned it.
